Tomato Sweet
by tributedangel
Summary: About halfway through their UC op, Nick and Andy went on a small vacation. This was the beginning of the grilled tomato omelet. /not necessarily shipping, but view it how you like
1. Chapter 1

"Wait, what?" Andy asked, a confused sort of smile playing on her lips, hands on her waist. "Did you just say 'free weekend'?"

"Yeah," Blackstone's voice said casually over the cell's speaker. "On longer UC operations, I make these weekends available for people to head home for a visit, see loved ones, et cetera, et cetera. This weekend, you two are free to go and do whatever you want. You need anything, you let me know. I'll get back to you tomorrow."

He hung up without another word, forever Blackstone, and left Andy and Nick standing in a shocked silence.

The two said nothing of the weekend until after dinner that Tuesday night as they sat in front of the TV with Jeopardy playing in the background.

"Andy..." Nick began, waiting until she looked at him. "I don't know about you, but this weekend...it just doesn't...I don't think I can..."

Andy blinked, biting her lip. A few beats of silence went by before she nodded. "I know." It'd be too strange, too abrupt. Andy and Nick had changed in the few months since they'd left. Heading back to see their loved ones for two days before lurching back into this odd, bubbled life they'd built for themselves would be too difficult.

Especially when you considered the kind of terms they were on with everyone they'd left behind.

Within an hour, they'd shaken off their melancholy and had decided to use their free weekend to their advantage.

A half hour after that, a room had been booked at a little B&B in Niagara with a biking trail picked out.

They'd be okay. This would be okay.

* * *

"Crap," Andy muttered under breathe, tightening the grip on her bag. Nick's heart thumped a bit out of rhythm at the tension. It was Friday afternoon, he and Andy had arrived at the B&B, and the kind owner had just shown them to their room...which only had one bed.

"Uh..." was all Nick said.

The owner, a stout Portuguese woman named Linda finally noticed their discomfort. "Oh no," she said with dismay. "You aren't a couple, are you?"

Andy squished her lips together and shook her head as Nick admitted, "No, we're not. So terribly sorry..."

"No, no no no, it's me who's sorry, so sorry, I made a bad assumption! Please, come down to the main room and we'll get you in a two-bed room."

Nick felt a knot loosen in his chest. he'd only been acting as Andy's boyfriend for a month or so, and being able to actually be free of everything on this 'free weekend' was kind of refreshing. And yet, he also felt a tightening inside her as he thought over Linda's words again. The assumption they were a couple wasn't a bad one at all - two unrelated adults booking one room? At a B&B?

Linda was a _very_ kind woman for playing it off as she did. No awkwardness, no nosiness.

Nick was just ready for a relaxing weekend with a good friend.

* * *

Saturday morning, Andy and Nick ate breakfast with the other boarders as cooked and served by Linda and her husband Ricardo.

What really stood out for them was a fabulous omelet, stuffed full of ham and veggies and at least three cheeses, with sliced tomatoes on top.

"Oh my gosh," Andy moaned. "I haven't eaten food this good in _years_."

Nick stopped mid-chew. "Hey!" he protested, thinking back to all of his cooking over the past months.

Andy just laughed.

* * *

On Sunday morning, Nick and Andy requested the omelet and tomato dish again, to the extensive pleasure of Linda.

"Of course, of course! It's nice to know what you like; most boarders feel rude putting in food requests, and Ric doesn't like cheese! Can you believe it?" She cooked as she talked, and the two cops watched their breakfast unfold right before their eyes.

"To be honest, I really can't," Nick stated. "That is the best omelet I've had in my life. I think I'm a changed man."

"You really enjoy it so much?" Linda looked up from slicing tomatoes.

They both nodded quickly and Andy added, "Honest, some of the best cooking I've ever eaten."

Linda flushed with pleasure, looking back to the plates she was dishing up. "That's terribly sweet of you two to say. Thank you. I hope you enjoy your breakfast!"

The two of them returned to the B&B at noon to check out and get ready for their return back to Project Dakota.

It was when Ric was checking them out that Linda bustled in with a smile on her face and a card gripped in her hand. "I noticed you were heading out, and I wanted to give you this," She held out the card to Nick, who took it with some trepidation.

It was the omelet recipe. Nick felt his eyes widened; food this good should be like a treasure kept under lock and key. He could see Andy's lips tighten together trying not to laugh at his reaction, but if anything was worth it, it was this recipe. "Are you sure?" he questioned.

Linda nodded, beaming. "Nobody's loved that old recipe like you two, and I feel like your hands are capable ones." Nick fought down an embarrassed pleasure at her words, like the joy wrought from a mother's pride.

All of a sudden, Andy's stomach growled quietly, as if in response to the thought of future omelets. (He seemed to be the only one to hear it, and he gave her a smug look that promised later teasing.)

"I even wrote the secret to the whole thing there on the bottom!" Linda added excitedly.

Nick glanced back down at the card to find a starred sentence written in red at the bottom. "'The secret to the great taste of the recipe,'" he read aloud, "'is grilling the tomatoes to bring out the sweetness in them and the flavour of the omelet'..." he trailed off, glancing up at Linda with a smile on his face. "Thank you very much."

* * *

Nick smiles as he pulls tomatoes out of his fridge. He hasn't made the omelet in almost a month, and hasn't thought about Linda in almost two.

He falls into habit as he prepares a nice breakfast for him and Gail. Grating cheese, dicing meat, slicing tomatoes. All of the actions bring back so many memories from the UC op that he doesn't think much about the food, and mostly just remembers the wonderful Portuguese woman at the quaint B&B with the two-bed rooms.

* * *

**Alright, I'm aware that Nick said he invented the recipe, but I'm choosing to ignore that little fact. Artistic license!**

**This is a two-part story about that dumb omelet that's been stuck in my head since the episode came out. Second part will be from Andy's point of view!**


	2. Chapter 2

Nick and Andy became addicted to that stupid recipe. The nice thing about omelets is that they are flexible things to make, so even when they're out of a certain ingredient, it's still as amazing as ever - as long as there are tomatoes involved.

_That's what really ties it all together,_ Andy thought as she stared down at the tomato in her hand. _Without the tomato, it's just another omelet. We could throw anything in our eggs, and it would still taste great as long as we had tomato._

It was a cheery thought, to be sure, especially considering she wasn't the best of cooks. Usually, Nick was the one that did all the kitchen work. She could do brownies, and mac and cheese, but that was about it.

What she would never tell Nick was that she was actually pretty decent at following the recipe for their omelet. (His were way better. She didn't want him to stop making them.)

At that moment, she was bustling around their apartment's kitchen alone. She had the day off at the bar, and Nick was off on a job and wasn't due back until the next day, so Andy figured it was the perfect time to make herself an omelet.

Half an hour later found Andy snuggled up on the couch watching a bad soap while digging into her tomato omelet. It wouldn't have taken her nearly as long to make if she'd actually known where anything in the kitchen was, but...okay, Nick did all of the cooking. She didn't really ever use the kitchen!

She was about two thirds done with her omelet (and five thirds done with the show she was watching) when she heard the front door's handle being jiggled. Instantly, she was on guard, tensing up, putting down her food and throwing her blankets aside.

She debated on grabbing the gun from beneath the couch, but decided against it. She figured she could handle herself, and didn't really want to risk blowing their cover.

Andy tiptoed over towards the door, fists clenched lightly and arms ready to swing. She couldn't remember if she had locked the door or not. She wasn't sure what to do next.

True McNally style, she gave in to instinct and threw open the door with one hand, gearing up to punch with the other. Only the sight of Nick, eyes wide and face a ruddy red, stopped her arm's movement.

"Nick!" she called out quietly, distantly noting Vaughn and PJ behind him. Her arm dropped to her side slowly. "I thought you were some robber! What are you doing back so soon?"

"Hey, nice to see you too!" he said warmly, his eyes teasing. "No one reason as to why the early arrival, job just fell into place pretty quick." He said it all quickly, eyes boring into hers with all traces if teasing gone. _Keep quiet,_ they said, _until they've left_. Until he could share the _real_ story.

"Oh," Andy said kind of numbly. The gazes of Nick's 'buddies' gave her an uncomfortable shiver and she remembered who she was here. "Well, I'm glad to have you back." She tried for a happy voice, but wasn't sure how well she succeeded. She put one hand on Nick's shoulder and the other one grabbed the bottom hem of his shirt, pulling him close until their lips mushed flat against each others. She put some force against his for a few seconds - _one, two, three_ - before drawing back slowly.

"Very glad," Nick said quietly before turning to send off the other guys. Within five minutes, the two of them were alone and Nick was collapsing on the couch, looking completely exhausted now he could actually be _Nick_.

"What happened?" Andy asked quietly. She leaned one shoulder against the wall near him in an attempt to give him space.

"They lost the delivery. Not on our end - our guy never showed up. We waited hours longer than we were supposed to before giving up. Didn't even bother going to our drop off point. Just came straight home."

"Well, you scared the crap out of me, that's for sure," Andy said as she pushed off the wall and walked closer.

Nick gave a half smile, or tried to at least, before sitting up and looking her right in the eyes. "I'm worried, Andy," he whispered. "No pickup, no drop off - for one, Blackstone's not gonna be too happy. But the boss is gonna be a million times worse. This might be my out, whether I want it or not."

Andy's teeth clenched together at the terrifying and, frankly, frustrating thought of their op falling to pieces. Her mind raced through different scenarios and variables and solutions, attempting to find some way to fix this.

All she could come up with: omelet.

She grabbed her mostly eaten one and shoved it into his hands without a word before heading off to the kitchen to make him another.

She'd already cracked the eggs into the pan before Nick finally said something.

"Wait," he said haltingly. "I thought...I thought you couldn't cook!" She glanced at him but said nothing. "What is this? You've been making me make this for months!" His voice was so full of indignation, her eyebrows raised, although she could hear the playfulness behind it quite clearly. "I've _perfected_ the recipe! And you could make it by yourself just fine this entire time?" He seemed to wake up with every word he spoke, returning to himself and the present and right there with Andy in their little apartment.

She had to fight back a smile.

* * *

It had been a long day at work, what with the anthrax and that idiot Howard and_ Marlo_. Andy's still quietly reeling over what she learned about the woman and all the implications it held.

There's nothing Andy wants more in that moment than one of Nick's fabulous omelets.

One of her own will have to do.

It's been ages since she's made the omelet, and it takes her a good 15 minutes, even in her own kitchen and the recipe memorized inside out.

As she gets all the ingredients together (_peppers, she notes, she needs to buy peppers_), her mind drifts back to that day months ago, one of the few times Nick let her take care of him like that. It was a nice change, and relaxing for her to know that he was resting and recharging.

After she'd finished his omelet, they'd found a French TV channel to put on mute and dubbed two full length movies themselves. It was the early hours of the morning when Nick had passed out, and almost dawn by the time she decided to stop watching over him (because, yeah, that's not creepy at all) and go to bed.

They'd never really talked about it, but she could see it - still could even now - in his eyes. He appreciated her and her friendship in ways that he couldn't seem to express vocally.

She feels the same.

* * *

**Oh gosh, guys, I apologize for the ridiculously long wait. Life's been weird, and I'll just leave it at that. I haven't even seen the last, like, three new episodes! I miss my cops dearly! **

**Now, whether you ship McCollins or not (_please_ do not spoil me pleasepleaseplease), this is sort of written either way, I guess. More-so shippy I think, since I feel like this develops their friendship - and the best romantic relationships come from great friendships, so! **

**Let me know what you think, and I hope you enjoyed the tomato-omelet story! **


End file.
